National Dialogue On Sustainable
Agricultural Intensification and its
role on the climate resilient green
economy initiative in Ethiopia
A recap from Day 1 (23 July 2012)
Ermias Betemariam
Meron Mulatu
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Lain Wright
Sustainable intensification: Increase production
while maintaining ecosystem health
A national platform for institutional learning
and policy action on NRM in Ethiopia
Presentation – 23 July 2012
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• Agri., water, forest and food security are wellconnected = integrated approach (Rio+20)
• Week institutional linkages & fragmented
investment
• Platform:
– Guide evidence based policy formulation
– Reduce risk of duplications
• Approach: creating portal
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Sustainable tree-crop-livestock intensification
as a pillar for the Ethiopian climate resilient
green economy initiative –
ICRAF led project funded by USAID
Aster G/Kirstos (PhD) and Kiros Meles Hadgu (PhD)
Presented at National Dialog On Sustainable Agricultural Intensification
and its role on the CRGE
23-24 July, ILRI, Ethiopia
• SSA poor cereal production (1 t/ha) –major
challenge:
• Agroforestry as a solution
• Major challenges of environmental
degradation
– Agri. Expansion
– Free grazing
– Lack of tree germplasm
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National Dialog On Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Ethiopia and its role on the
climate resilient green economy initiative in Ethiopia
July 23rd and 24th, 2012, ILRI Campus, Addis Ababa
The status of forestry development in Ethiopia:
Challenges and Opportunities
Wubalem Tadesse
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research
wubalem16@gmail.com
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• Opportunities
– Exclosures
– Tree planting in home gardens & woodlots
– Why Ethiopia is wood importer?
• Challenges
– State of Ethiopian forest: lacks data & updating (old
references)
– Deforestation
– Poor forestry institutions
• Consequences of forest degradation: erosion, siltation,
etc.
• Integrated approach: forestry, Agri, Industry
• More investment in forest research, education and
extension
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Importance of Biodiversity for
agricultural intensification and
climate change adaptation in
Ethiopia
Gemedo Dalle (PhD)
Institute of Biodiversity Conservation
• Biodiversity values
• Critical about “sustainability” & “intensification”
– Intensification may affect sustainability: care to address the issues
of small holding farmers
– Researchers should focus on local varieties. There are fast growing
tree and shrub species
– Generic erosion to adapt for climate change, disease resistant etc.
– Diversification should be considers as a useful pillar in projects.
• Proper valuation of ecosystem services: yield /ha is not
sufficient (values of trees on landscapes…)
• Consider the international convention that Ethiopia has
accepted
• Strong forest institution
• BD - Key weapon in the fight against climate change
Contribution of TAF to climate change
adaptation and mitigation in Ethiopia
Zebene Asfaw
Hawassa Unversity, Wondo Genet college of
Forestry and Natural Resources.
zebeneasfaw@yahoo.co.uk,
zebeneasfaw@gmail.com
• Agroforestry (Gedeo) for landscape
connectivity, land rehabilitation, nutrient
cycling, water quality…
• Diversification (e.g. interventions, income) is
key to intensification
• Intensification of agri. Should also give
emphasis to already existing AF systems
Forest Policy, Strategies and Laws of
Ethiopia: Opportunities and
Challenges to Developing the Sector
Melaku Bekele (WGCF-NR, Wondo Genet)
and
Habtemariam Kassa (CIFOR, Addis Ababa)
Presentation at the
National Dialog On Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Ethiopia
and its role on the climate resilient green economy initiative in Ethiopia
23-24 July 2012, Addis Ababa
• Forest policy is a process:
• Forestry institution vacuum
• Forestry proclamation 2007 but forest
directive missing
• Monitoring policy outcomes are lacking: policy
implementation is an issue
• Lack of clear data on forestry
• Inadequate attention by the planners to the
sector- undervaluation of the total economic
values of forest resources
• Forest property rights
• Lack of capable institutions
• Establishing regular discussion forum
Genesis of Climate Resilient Highlands Transformation
Kelali Adhana (PhD)
Director General
Tigray Science and Technology Agency
July 23, 2012
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
23 July 2012
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• A climate resilient economy – avert the negative
consequence of CC
• Economics of CC
• Economic resilience
• Environmental resilience
– Strengthening GO an Civil Society organizations
– Requires new types of institutional arrangements
• Society resilience:
– Policy should consider social resiliency
– Indigenous knowledge
• What matters for the highlands matters for the lowlands
Information Needs for Adaptation to &
Mitigation of Climate Variability & Change
Dr. Girma Balcha and Gebru Jember
Climate Change Forum-Ethiopia
Gebru_j@yahoo.com
• at least 30 years of change
• We don’t have enough met stations- poor
spatial and temporal coverage (modeling as a
solution
• Ethiopia trend– temp increasing but rainfall variability
– Future projections: RF will increase
More attention to climate variability than CC
(Ali , 2007)
Need for formulating research/ knowledge-based
policy and strategy set up
Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in the
Ethiopian Highlands
Tilahun Amede
Scientist / Nile Basin Coordinator,
CGIAR Challenge Program Water for Food
• Problem priority: Water scarcity
• Water scarcity
– Physical
– Economic (e.g. Sahara has huge under ground
water but not economical to use it).
Compare sustainability and intensifications- they may
contradict
Intensification is short term- increase productivity
Sustainability is long term
Approach
– Understand systems and the clients
– Improving water storage and productivity of
farms, landscapes and basins
– Increasing water productivity
• Livestock productivity- reduce distance to watering
point
• through enhancing soil fertility (Zn): combining organic
and inorganic fertilizers
• We need to make choices: more food per unit of water
– Landscape approaches for intensifications
– Functional policies in facilitating incentives
mechanism
• Market incentives: infrastructure is rudimentary
• Policy incentives
• Safety-net options
– Enable local institutions
– Scaling up/out/down- good pracitices
Reflections
• What are the challenges to implement Agfor?
• Consider the roles of natural & plantation forests
[the topic is intensification- trees outside forest]
• Strong forestry institution needed
• Wide use of exotic tree species could alter future
forest diversity
• Whose task is data base management? At
different levels (e.g. institutions) [BoARD]
• Urban forestry: towns are more green than their
surroundings
• Science/research-policy interface:
– breaking the academic circle
– Policy communication- the national platform is
good
– Professional shouldn’t bias decision makers
• Specialization: northern Ethiopia has good potential for
grain production that the traditional Agfo might be less
feasible [Agofo has still potential in northern Ethiopia- land
restoration]
• Eucalyptus as Agroforestry species [used as shelter in wet
soils]
• Trends in forest cover change = f(Af/reforestation,
deforestation) [number of seedlings plants doesn’t tell the
change in forest cover- proper data and documentation
needed]
• The proceeding should be shared with policy makers:
[policy makers are very much aware and shared with
proceedings in the past]
• CC uncertainties should be managed carefully
• What is our priority? adaptation or mitigation
[adaptation]
• Why farmers are not adopting good practices?
• Environmental resilience: ecosystems don’t
bounce back but respond: prepare the
community for scenarios than Green Economy
– Develop scenario
– Prepare packages
• Livestock productivity by reducing walking
distance appreciated
• Soil organic matter management: identify the
limiting elements (low of the minimum)
• Water scarcity a serious problem: improve
water use efficiency- recycling & reuse
• Traditional resilience: traditional knowledge
Common issues shard by the speakers
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•
•
•
Data source/quality
Institutional strength
Small-holders and indigenous knowledge
Proper valuation of forests/biological
resources to ecosystem services
• Up/out-scaling of good practices
Creating synergies
Ethiopian soils: Agriculture
Transformation Agency
Red-legacy data
White- AfSIS sentinel site
Green- Millennium Village
Yellow- proposed 98 sentinel sites
http://www.africasoils.net/EthiopiaSoils
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Final remarks
Good representation of institutions- a good mix.
Very informative presentations
Much engagement from the audience
Thank you